So here's a wicked monster idea, inspired by a photo I saw over on I09 - so lets say you take your basic terrestrial Angler Fish, scale it up so it's Space Slug sized, and instead of bioluminescence for the fleshy knob to lure in their prey, it emits some kind of natural radio waves. Over the millions of years of evolution, these Space Anglers have hit upon just the right radio frequency as the galactic distress signals.

So a passing ship picks up an signal on the emergency channels - they cant decipher the message, but it's obliviously a repeating pattern, obviously a call for help of some sorts. We'll say the Angler lives in a asteroid field for cover, so the crew doesn't notice right away that something is amiss. When they get close to the source of the signal, WHAM! The Angler strikes, eating the ship.

I'm away from my book right now, so I cant ponder stats yet - but I thought it was a cool idea for an encounter to share.

What do you think, sirs?

Well, Joel...

That sounds very cool! Very "Star Wars" too.

If I used it, I might say that it emitted a mysterious beacon that was unidentifiable rather than some exact form of distress call, but I love the idea anyway.

Might be fun to have a sequence of the ship trying to outrun the giant Angler as it chomped and pushed its way through the asteroid field, clawing the rocks out of its way and grappling at the ship with its enormous maw.

Hmmm, I think I like the mysterious beacon idea better too. Okay, check this out. Go read about the life-cycle of the Angler over on The Oatmeal (warning, slightly salty language, but funny as hell). Okay, so the female Space Angler, instead of using pheromone and scent to attract a mate, uses the radio frequencies to attract them.

(A slightly different encounter would be before running into the female of the species, the players,have trouble with their ship, enough that they have to turn on the distress call. The male Space Angler, looking for a mate, pick up the frequencies and mistake it for a "come get some!" call from the female. So here's their crippled ship, floating near this asteroid field, the crew working on getting their systems up and running when - here comes Male Angler, looking for lovin'! What kind of difficulty dice would you assign to any piloting checks interfered with by a horny angler fish? )

Anyway, so that's why they use radio to attract prey - it's a side effect of the mating ritual that happened to pay out additional dividends.

I shall investigate no signals from now on.

Desslok, just want to say again this is a great idea. I have added it to my GM Holocron for future use!

I have always wanted to run a game and slowly, very slowly, have been making a Holocron. this has been stolen and added. Friggin awesome!

I have always wanted to run a game and slowly, very slowly, have been making a Holocron. this has been stolen and added. Friggin awesome!

Grab some friends or head to your local game shop with the Beginner's Box!

It's a great way to get started, and super easy for folks who haven't played before to learn.